Blogs and Commentary

NCAA Division II Notebook

Selection Sunday will be a lot less hectic this spring for
Limestone. Instead of flying up to Long Island on the final day of
the season to play Dowling — a game that ending up being a
preview of the national championship game — the Saints
players will be taking exams and putting their academics to bed for
the spring.

It's a rare weekend off Limestone, which always tries to stuff
competition into every possible date, but Saints head coach J.B.
Clarke is OK with this setup. Because the NCAA tournament starts a
week earlier with the addition of a quarterfinal round, his players
will be idle for the standard two weeks they usually are between
the selection announcement and the first game.

They'll be idle in the sense that there are no games, but there
will be plenty of competition.

"We have the Gaffney Cup," Clarke said. "We split the guys into
four teams, with the players picking them, and we play
seven-on-seven, sideline-to-sideline. We keep stats and change the
rules up on them all the time: defenseman playing offense, can't
score unless it's assisted, all sorts of different rules. A lot of
practices are keeping them fresh and letting them play, not bogging
them down with a lot of mental stuff, especially during finals. And
we condition the heck out of them. We want them to be in better
shape by the time they are done."

Not to say the Saints are out of shape. In fact, if the sweep of
Pfeiffer last week is any indication, Clarke feels they might be
slightly ahead of last year's pace.

"We're playing better right now than we were at this time last
year," he said. "Last year, Pfeiffer was able to really slow the
game down to a crawl, frustrate us with that. We had trouble
getting enough possessions to score the way we like to. I don't
think it is so much about the new rule with the timer on. Quite
frankly, we got called for more timers on than Pfeiffer did, and
we're not a slow-it-down team. We're just clicking a little bit
better right now. We played some really good lacrosse."

They've been solid all season, and they hand over a 15-1 mark to
the selection committee — a record that makes them locks for
one of the four South Region bids. Where they end up getting seeded
is a bigger question. Seton Hill and Limestone have swapped spots
in the regional rankings at Nos. 2-3 the past two weeks, and if
Mercyhurst wins the ECAC title, it's almost certain that the
Griffins and Saints will meet in the national quarterfinals. The
only question is where.

It's not something that the Limestone players or coaches worry
about.

"Those [rankings] are so based on stats, numbers, percentages,
RPIs and all that stuff," Clarke said. "Other than knowing that
we're in the Top 4 right now, which is important, where we're
ranked just really doesn't matter. I don't even know when it comes
out. I'm not even coaching you either; I just don't know."

The Saints know they will get another chance to make a run to
the national championship game, so Clarke is just keeping things
simple prior to their first match-up.

"We're trying to get better and deeper every day," he said.

- There are certain players we're used to seeing atop the
Limestone box scores, but a new name came into focus after the
Conference Carolinas championship game against Pfeiffer. Junior
Todd Nakasuji had four goals to lead the Saints to a 16-8 victory.
Nakasuji isn't a complete unknown — he is fourth on the team
in scoring with 26 goals and 17 assists — but he gets lost in
the shuffle sometimes.

"You get so enamoured with Riley Loewen and you're used to
hearing Shayne Jackson," said Clarke. "Todd is more than adequate
down there. [Pfeiffer] tried to short stick Todd a couple of times
and that didn't work out real well. He has really come into his
own. He's a solid player, nothing real flashy, but he gets the job
done for us. He's another Canadian lefty and a real smart lacrosse
player."

- The St. Michael's loss didn't end up costing Adelphi. With Le
Moyne taking down the Purple Knights this past weekend, Adelphi
scooped up the No. 1 seed in the Northeast-10 tournament and will
earn a first round bye along with No. 2 Merrimack...Merychurst got
the top seed in the ECAC tourney after handling Seton Hill on the
road, 12-9...check out the updated Division II conference tournament
clearinghouse for complete brackets.

- East Coast Conference commissioner Bob Dranoff said that the
conference will adopt a league tournament next year. The details of
the playoff will be determined during the spring meeting of league
officials, but it's a done deal...Merrimack's Greg Melaugh tied the
school record for goals in a game (9) against Assumption and is
also now tied for third in single game points (11) after dishing
out a pair of assists in the win...Chestnut Hill's 18-8 victory
over Dowling was certainly a surprise, if only for the margin, and
the Griffins can now say they put the defending champs to bed.

- Pfeiffer made its final case to the committee by beating
Rollins, and now must hope for a quick exit by Lake Erie in the
ECAC tournament, where the Storm matches up with Seton Hill in the
first round. In the Rollins win, junior pole Mike Triolo scooped up
11 ground balls, giving him 105 for his career and breaking a
school record that had stood since 1991 (Dan Ciaravino). At
6-foot-7 and 205 pounds, Triolo gives new meaning to the word
lanky.

- Dominican (Calif.) capped off its undefeated WILA season with
a thorough, 22-3 victory over Bay Area rival Notre Dame de Namur.
In the victory, the Penguins set the single-season school record
for wins (8), goals (167) and total points (261) while the 22
markers was a single-game school record...speaking of Western
rivalries, Colorado Mesa defeated Adams state in a nailbiter, 10-9,
to sweep the season series...I received word from a reliable source
that there is an impending announcement coming from a D-II Colorado
school that will be making the jump to varsity in the near future.
This team is expected to join the WILA, which will give the league
five teams and perhaps break the ice for numerous other schools in
the area.